On Wed, 04 Jan 2006, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> Very nice!  Doing a 'make release syspkgs' now, so I can play with it...
> 
> How is it expected to be used?

Eventually, it should be possible to install subsets of the system by
specifying which syspkgs you want, perhaps via a config file, or menus
in sysinst, or both.  Also to upgrade subsets of the system, say for
security patches.  But I don't have a detailed plan for how to get to
that point.

> Also -- what file contains the list of packages and their contents?

The list of packages and their contents is derived from
src/distrib/sets/lists/*.

> (I assume the "small problems" with pkg_add you refer to are just
> startup transients.)

No, it's because syspkgs want to use pkg_add in a new way, and the
necessary code's not written yet.  If you just use the existing pkg_add,
you might notice incorrect directory permissions, incorrect information
in metalog or etc/mtree, and that pkg_add doesn't have any concept of
a DESTDIR that is currently mounted somewhere other than where it is
intended to be used.

--apb (Alan Barrett)